NATCHEZ — The City of Natchez’s new information technology director started work this week toward his goal to unify, simplify, streamline and secure the city’s technological operations.

Natchez native Eric Junkin was settling into his new office in City Hall and his new position heading up the city’s one-man IT department on his first official day Thursday.

Junkin has a master’s in mechanical engineering from Mississippi State University in 1982. Junkin gained several years experience at IBM working in the engineering and development labs and technology support and services.

Junkin started his own technology consulting and services company, Unique Perspectives Consulting, with his wife, Leigh Mutchler, and returned to Natchez in 1998. Junkin said his company has helped him become familiar with demands of both a technology director position and someone who handles the hands-on, day-to-day operations.

Junkin said the first step in his plan for the city is to collect and compile all documents from the city departments and familiarize himself with the needs and responsibilities of the different departments..

“I have to go out and get a grip on all the systems, then as I do that, I’ll be forming what I will be able to do to create one system for all the departments,” Junkin said.

The city departments are each currently running different programs with no uniform system in place. Junkin said the goal is to create a network with one server for all departments to store and access information in one place.

Efficiency is one of Junkin’s main objectives for the city. This approach, Junkin said, will not only save the city time and money, it will also allow Junkin and officials to frequently look at a collective, up-to-date budget and see where spending can be cut.

“I’m going to be a budget grabber,” Junkin said. “If I can consolidate budgets and understand what we’re spending, we can redirect that spending to a more enterprise approach.”

The city also implemented new accounting software at the beginning of the year to manage budgets and for department heads to have daily access to their budgets through the same system.

For the city, Junkin said he will serve as the person to maintain and continue current operations and also an upper umbrella that keeps things consistent and provides whatever technology services the city needs. Junkin said he will also be beefing up the security of the city’s system.

Once a consistent and uniform system is in place, Junkin said he will ensure that all city employees can understand and use it, so operational issues can be eliminated.

Junkin said he will also get feedback from the city about what types of technological services it wants to offer.

Natchez Mayor Jake Middleton has said he hopes residents will soon be able to pay utilities, taxes and fees for things such as business licenses online.

Junkin said his long-term goal was always to come back to Natchez and work, and he said he is excited to be part of the effort to build an IT department from the ground up.

“It looks like a great opportunity and an opportunity to make a lot of people happy,” he said.